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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Dolphins Affected by BP Oil Spill in Grave Health Situation

The year was 2010. The world saw one of
history’s worst oil spills, wreaking havoc on all sorts of marine animals in
the US gulf coast and to this day, causing problems in the region.

A study conducted over the years that
followed the spill shows that dolphins affected by the BP oil spill are now
plagued with a host of severe health problems. Close to half of the 32 dolphins
observed from Louisiana's Barataria Bay in 2011 were discovered to be in grave
condition, this according to the study spearheaded by National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, and recently published in the journal, Environmental
Science and Technology.

Around 17 percent of the observed dolphin
population were categorized as being in grave condition and likely to expire
from poor health. A team scientists and researchers from the government,
academic and private sector, conducted the study a year after the oil spill as
part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA).

According to government estimates, the
disastrous Deepwater Horizon spill churned out at least 4 million barrels of
oil into the Barataria Bay in the Gulf of Mexico.

Among the health problems found in the Louisiana
dolphins include extreme lung disease and low levels of adrenal stress-response
hormones. One-fourth of the dolphins were also malnourished. Overall,
researchers report most of the diseases observed in the Barataria Bay dolphins
are rare but have been observed in dolphins exposed to oil and toxicity.